Isaac Smith (Royal Navy officer)

Isaac Smith
Isaac Smith (second from left in boat, in red coat) preparing to step ashore in Botany Bay, April 1770.
Born	1752
Died	1831 Merton, Surrey
Allegiance	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Service/branch	Royal Navy
Years of service	1768-1807
Rank	Rear Admiral
Commands held	HMS Weazle HMS Perseverance
Battles/wars	Capture of the Résolue, 1791
Relations	James Cook

Isaac Smith (1752–1831) was a Rear Admiral in the Royal Navy and cousin of the wife of Captain James Cook, with whom he sailed on two voyages of exploration in the South Pacific. Smith was the first European to set foot in eastern Australia and the first to prepare survey maps of various Pacific islands and coastlines including Tierra del Fuego in South America.

Smith was born in London in 1752, the eldest of seven children of Charles and Hannah Smith and cousin to James Cook's wife Elizabeth. He enlisted for naval service in 1767 at the age of thirteen, using his family connections to secure an immediate ranking of able seaman and a position aboard HMS Grenville under Cook's command, for a survey voyage off the west coast of Newfoundland. On 27 May 1768, and still ranked able seaman, he transferred to his second vessel, Cook's Endeavour, at Deptford ahead of its expedition to the Pacific to observe the 1769 Transit of Venus and then to search the south Pacific for signs of the postulated Terra Australis Incognita (or "unknown southern land").

Smith sailed with Cook to Tahiti, then to New Zealand and the east coast of Australia. On 28 April 1770 he became the first European to set foot on eastern Australian soil, Cook telling him "Jump out, Isaac" as the ship's boat touched the shore at Botany Bay. A month later on 23 May 1770, Smith was promoted to midshipman following James Magra's suspension on suspicion of having assaulted Cook's clerk.

Cook's lieutenant Zachary Hicks died from tuberculosis in May 1771, and was replaced by the master's mate Charles Clerke. In turn, Smith was promoted to fill Clerke's former role and served with distinction for the remainder of the voyage. Cook singled him out in a letter to the Secretary of the Admiralty in 1772, noting that Smith "had been of great use to me in assisting to make Surveys, Drawings &c in which he is very expert."